Roger Hepher
Director, HGH Consulting
Roger Hepher is one of the co-founders at hgh Consulting
He holds a Degree in Town & Country Planning a Masters in Town Planning; and is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism.
After successfully heading Hepher Dixon from the mid 1990s, Roger was Savills’ national Head of Planning, leading a team of nearly 200 planners, from 1988 to 2014, and sat on the Board of Savills UK. He co-founded the company that is now hgh Consulting in 2016.
He is active in the affairs of the British Property Federation and London First. He was a member of the coalition Government’s Planning Sounding Board; was appointed by Nick Boles (then Planning Minister) as a Red Tape Challenge Champion; and was a member of the expert panel advising Bridget Rosewell OBE’s review of Planning Appeal Inquiries.
Roger is an experienced planning strategist and leader of professional teams. He also has considerable experience as an expert witness at public inquiries, planning hearings, development plan examinations, Upper Tribunal (formerly Lands Tribunal) hearings, CPO inquiries, High Court proceedings and Select Committee hearings.
Joanna Averley
Chief Planner, Department of Levelling Up Housing & Communities
Paul Morrison
Chief Executive, Planning Inspectorate
Ian Anderson
Chief Executive, Iceni Projects
Ian is always seeking to identify opportunities to add value for his clients, and to further the growth of Iceni.
Having previously been a director at Town Planning Consultancy and subsequently
RPS, Ian has experienced working for both private-run and PLC planning firms. In turn, Ian worked for a private property company, led by two entrepreneurs, where he both acquired sites and managed them through the planning process.
Ian has taken the key ingredients that made those businesses successful and instilled them into the fabric of Iceni: A business mindset characterised by hard work, strategic vision, common sense, topical awareness, and speed of thought.
Ian relishes working with clients, be that on site identification, business planning or project strategy.
Ian currently works on a range of strategic, retail, and residential projects, and also serves in an advisory capacity to a number of property companies.
Iain Gilbey
Partner – Head of Planning, Pinsent Masons
Iain specialises in all aspects of the law relating to town and country planning and related environmental issues. He is a senior partner with Pinsent Masons’ market leading planning law team, and leads the firm’s Residential Sector. His primary focus is on large scale mixed use and residential led projects in London, urban extensions and large scale settlement, garden villages and commercial and sporting stadia projects. His practice encompasses advice on all non-contentious and contentious planning matters, including Court challenges, public inquiries and other tribunals. Iain is recognised as a leading planning lawyer by the Legal 500, Chambers Guide and Planning Magazine’s Annual Legal Survey.
Claire Dutch
Head of UK Real Estate & Co-Head of Planning & Environment, Ashurst
Mark Skilbeck
UK Planning Director, Taylor Wimpey
Sarah Scannell
Assistant Director - Planning , Birmingham City Council
Anthony Lee
Senior Director, BNP Paribas Real Estate
Anthony Lee BSc (Hons) MSc (Econ) MA (TP) PhD MRTPI MRICS is Head of UK Development Viability at BNP Paribas Real Estate. He is a chartered surveyor and chartered town planner specialising in development economics, financial modelling and valuation, and advises clients in the public and private sectors on a range of affordable housing issues. His team has recently advised local authority and developer clients on major strategic residential developments in London (Stag Brewery, Westferry Printworks, North Quay, Battersea Power Station, Chelsea Barracks, Leamouth Peninsula, Greenwich Millennium Village, New Wembley, Stratford City, Silvertown Quays, Tideway Wharf, Tottenham Hale, Creekside Village and Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club).
Andy Leahy
Managing Director, Bespoke Property Group
Andy began his 13 year career with Wimpey, starting out as a trainee engineer, rising to Development Director for their Eastern Counties operations based in Witham. His next appointment was as Managing Director of the southern housing operations for Raine Industries. Following the sale of the Raine Industries housebuilding business to Balfour Beatty, Andy became a consultant to Admiral Homes working on the sale of the company to Bryant Homes
Andy was then Development Director for Ballymore Properties Ltd from 1996 to 2004, working on major mixed-use schemes in London and across the country following the purchase of Railtrack
2
Property. Whilst at Ballymore Andy worked with the Irish Homebuilder’s Association and the Irish Government and funding institutions on the introduction of Affordable Housing policies.
In 2004 Andy set up Bespoke Property Consultants which specialises in providing consultancy services on financial viability of developments, Build to Rent projects, S.106 Agreements and Affordable Housing for developers, Registered Providers and local authorities. Bespoke is a niche practice with eight consultants and administrative staff.
Bespoke Property Consultants provides one of the country’s leading consultancy services on affordable housing and development viability. In 2005 Andy together with Stuart Morley of GVA Grimley, authored the Economic Assessment Tool for the Homes & Communities Agency, which is now in use throughout the country in support of planning applications. BPC works for a wide variety of councils and developers carrying out site specific financial viability assessments, affordable housing advice and infrastructure assessments. In relation to this Andy provides expert witness advice at planning appeals. Currently Andy with his colleagues is advising on schemes of up to 6,000 units each in the growth areas of Ashford and Cambridgeshire, as well as high density mixed use schemes in London and the South east.
Through his work with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Andy has advised on policy around Build to Rent, affordable housing and financial viability models. He has written guidance to assist fellow practitioners and is a consultee on regulation and development valuation for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. In 2019 Andy did a speaking tour in New South Wales, Australia on the elements needed to encourage a new Build to Rent Sector. Following that tour the NSW Government engaged with Stakeholders lead by Andy’s hosts the Committee for Sydney and ECF which lead to changes in taxation and planning policy in February 2021.
Andy was formerly Chair of A2 Dominion Enterprises (now called “Fabrica”) which is the development arm of A2 Dominion Housing Group a Registered Provider, targeting the key worker and open sale / rental markets. Andy is currently a non-executive Director of Orchard and Shipman Homes which is a new management only Registered Provider targeting the delivery of schemes in association with Local Authorities and Developers. Andy chaired the CLG working group on the financial viability of Build to Rent in planning which informed government policy advice for this emerging market.
Frances Summers
Senior Planner, BCP Council
A late bloomer to planning, beginning her planning career at 32, Frances is a Chartered Town Planner with experience in policy, development management and academia.
Frances is an active staff member at the University of Gloucestershire where she spends some of her week embedding practice into taught modules and research. The remainder of the working week is spent in practice working hard to achieve good place making. Her key strengths lie in governance and building relationships which fuels her interest and ideas for planning transformation.
She always makes time to support colleagues and, due to this, she was nominated and subsequently selected as one of The Planners Woman of Influence 2021. Also, a winner of the RTPI’s South West Young Planner of the Year 2021, with nominations for RTPI Young Planner of the Year and Rising Stars Award 2022. When not at work, Frances spends time walking her two cocker spaniels, paddleboarding, reading and watching live music.”
David Proctor
Assistant Director, Planning and Regeneration, Wigan Council
Alice Davidson
Group Senior Planning Manager Vistry Group
Dinny Shaw
Head of Planning, Places for People
Rebecca Clutten
Barrister, Francis Taylor Building
Heather Cheesbrough
Director of Planning and Sustainable Regeneration, London Borough of Croydon
Richard Kimblin KC
No5 Chambers
Richard combines very strong practices across four areas: (1) strategic scale planning advice for major residential and infrastructure schemes; (2) long and complex public inquiry work; (3) novel issues of planning and environmental law in the Planning Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, and; (4) minerals, mines and waste advice and advocacy.
He has long been listed as a leading (Tier 1) silk in planning and environmental fields and has been appointed a Deputy High Court Judge
Matthew Nicholson
Planning Director, Audley Group